Dragon and Shadow
by Schnickledooger
Summary: LOTR inspired AU. Dragon! Akashi, Thief! Kuroko. He did have time to note the spiked ridges that trailed down the back of the dragons's spine before the end of the coiled tail came crashing into the side of his head. KNB secret santa fic. Akakuro


**Disclaimer:** I do not own **Kuroko no Basuke**. Fujimaki Tadatoshi does.

**Dragon and Shadow**

_The war had been going on for as long as Kuroko could remember. Some said they had been fighting each other for a hundred years. No one could remember who had launched the first attack or why the battle had begun in the first place. What the people did remember though was years of bloodshed and hate and the tens of thousands of their kin slain on both sides. Those stains could not wash away so easily._

oOo

It was a deep thrumming sound that pierced the darkness of Kuroko's mind and slowly brought him back into wakefulness. There was a dull sort of throbbing in the back of his skull. He blinked, feeling disoriented, and realized he was lying sideways. Putting his weight on one side, he propped up on elbow… and the ground shifted beneath him scattered every which way. He happened to be laying on none other than one of the countless piles of gold that lay heaped within heart of the mountain.

"Finally awake, my would be-shadow thief?" a great voice rumbled, echoing through the air.

Everything came rushing back to him, stabbing into his memory like broken shards of glass.

_He stepped as softly as possible amidst the gold and precious stones. The inside of the mountain was dark but the gold gleamed with a faint light enough to see: piles and piles of the precious metal littered all over the ground._

_A glittering shower of coins and jewels rained down upon him as the gargantuan form of a dragon heaved itself up from beneath its golden bed._

_Kuroko had waited patiently without panicking. It was alright. The dragon did not know he was there. It would not notice him. No one ever did. _

_The mountain shuddered under the dragon's mighty weight as the creature waded through its treasure hoard sending out waves of gold in its wake like a ship at sea—a ship covered with crimson red scales and large leathery wings for sails._

_Crouched behind a statue, Kuroko caught a glimpse of the dragon's ghastly face: steam sizzling out of the two wide nostrils, a slightly gaping jaw where rows of jagged ivory teeth were silhouetted by a glowing orange light deeper within its throat, and two mismatched eyes; one eye, a brilliant scarlet red to match the splendor of his scales, and the other, golden in color._

_And though he knew it was not possible to see him, Kuroko still shuddered as those mismatched eyes with their slit pupils swept over him. His skin felt like it was burning under the intensity of the dragon's gaze. Yet he dared not even let a sigh of relief escape his lips when at last the creature turned its head away._

_He did have time to note the spiked ridges that trailed down the back of the dragons's spine before the end of the coiled tail came crashing into the side of his head._

_Then there was nothing but darkness._

Kuroko looked up. The dragon lay stretched out on its side with one massive front claw resting a hairsbreadth away from him, a warning in case his prey tried to flee. The dragon's eyelids drooped low and the folds of skin around its jaws were turned upward in a reptilian smile. Kuroko was reminded of a huge, scaly cat preparing to play with its dinner.

"Speak, little shadow-thief," the dragon commanded. "Tell me what exactly you were doing in my mountain."

He blamed the lump on his skull. It was still throbbing something fierce and he had only just woken out into consciousness. He wasn't thinking clearly.

"How did you know I was there?" Kuroko asked.

A deep rumbling emitted from the dragon's throat and Kuroko only realized it was dragon's laughter before a giant curved claw tapped gently on his chest. It still had enough force to knock him over backwards. He went sprawling into a gold pile with a loud clattering of coins.

"Such insolence for an intruder, and my being so kind as not to eat you right on the spot," the dragon snorted, sending out curling wisps of smoke from his nostrils indignantly.

The wind had been knocked out of him as well as his senses. When Kuroko did manage to get breath back in his lungs, the first thing that came out was, "Well, clearly I am a thief. You said so yourself so it must be true. That means I came to steal your gold."

This time it was the dragon's tail that wrapped itself around his legs, lifted him high into the air at the creature's eye-level and left him dangling there upside down.

"You have a sharp tongue, shadow-thief, but I will not play these word games with you. Tell me your name."

"Kuroko," Kuroko said without hesitation.

"No, _tell me your name,"_ the dragon all but growled, his golden eye flashing dangerously.

Then and only then did the panic worm its way out of Kuroko's stomach. "My name is _Ku-ro… kuro… ku…"_ he all but choked on the word. Something was squeezeing his entire body ruthlessly and it wasn't the dragon's tail that held him. The blood was rushing to his head from being upside down and his heart was pounding so fast in his chest he thought it might explode. "My n-name is…" He clamped down on his bottom lip hard enough that the skin broke and the taste of copper spilled into his mouth.

oOo

_He had overheard the new recruits in Seirin talking in hushed whispers about it once. _

"_They say he cast a powerful spell over the land," Kawahara said._

"_Who?" Furihata asked._

"_The sorcerer Hanamiya, one of the Crownless Generals, they call him the Web-weaver," Kawahara breathed out dramatically, aware he was drawing an audience. Fukuda had settled down beside the two as well now. _

_Kuroko watched and listened from the shadows as usual. They were supposed to be on night watch, but hearing a tale regaled was much more interesting than standing guard._

"_Why do they call him that?" Furihata asked curious as ever._

"_Because he's a monster, a spider in human form," Kawahara said. "He studies your habits, learns all about you then snags you fast in his web and steals your soul. He enjoys seeing you suffer."_

"_How do you know all this?" Fukuda asked skeptically._

"_I overheard Captain Aida and Lieutenant Hyuuga one time," Kawahara said glancing about as if the two commanders would bear down on him for speaking about such a forbidden topic. "The Web-weaver is the one who took out Iron Heart Kiyoshi on the battlefield. The two Crownless Generals, they used to be friends."_

_Twin gasps of surprise escaped from Furihata and Fukuda's lips._

"_Well, not really friends," Kawahara amended himself hastily. "I think the Captain said they went to the same Academy, that's all. But they knew each other. They trusted each other. That's how the Web-weaver took him out with just a snap of his fingers: Kiyoshi had told him his true name."_

_And now, even Kuroko, who usually excelled at card games with his ever-stoic expression, could not keep the horrified look from sliding across his face._

_It was the first rule of warfare everyone learned practically from birth: never, ever tell anyone your true name._

_For it could be used against you at great cost._

oOo

"Your _name_, shadow-thief!" the dragon roared, sparks of fire spitting from his jaws and so close Kuroko felt the heat of them wash over his skin in a blistering wave of air.

"_T-Tetsuya," _he croaked out and despair enveloped his soul.

He was set back down gently yet he still collapsed to his knees. All the strength seemed to have fled from his legs. Above his head, the dragon was thrumming in contentment.

"_Eat me…. please," _Kuroko gasped hoarsely, his entire body quivering all over as if he had been running for several hours. A cold sweat had broken out across his skin. He felt numb to the bone even though the inside of the mountain was very warm and humid, courtesy of the dragon's fiery breath.

"Why should I do that?" the dragon rumbled sounding very amused at the request.

"Because I am worthless now," Kuroko said.

It was true. Once the enemy learned your name you might as well be dead. They held you within their power. You had no control over your actions. Kiyoshi had locked himself up within one of Seirin's stone fortresses by the last shreds of his own free will. He had begged Captain Aida and Lieutenant Hyuuga to kill him countless times, but they could not bear to do so. Yet they could not even afford to banish him for surely the Web-weaver would merely draw him over to his faction and force him to fight against them. He already punished Kiyoshi for imprisoning himself where he could do no harm to anyone but himself. Sometimes Kuroko would creep down the cells' levels and hear the tortured, agonized screams of the once noble Iron Heart as he self-inflicted the Web-weaver's fury upon his own body. Staying within the shadows, he had seen the brave captain break down into tears after witnessing one of these episodes. He too had felt her anguish and outrage at not being able to do anything to help Kiyoshi but to simply stand by and watch as the Iron Heart slowly drove himself into madness.

Giving up one's true name was a living death sentence.

"Oh, my little shadow-thief, _Tetsuya,_" the dragon crooned and Kuroko winced as the sound of his own name pierced him like a thousand bee stings. "I will not eat you. You are not worthless to _me."_

"Don't you want to know why I've really come here?" Kuroko tried one last time to convince the beast, because surely when he found out the reason he _must _eat him then.

"Why you've come here no longer matters, shadow-thief," the dragon dismissed him. "Because you're never going to leave here again."

oOo

Days passed by excruciatingly slow. Kuroko wasn't sure if it had been weeks or months since he first had been bound to the dragon's lair. Every day was practically the same one after the other. The dragon would leave the mountain once a week to hunt and fill his appetite. Kuroko had tried to find a way out the first time the creature left him alone. But the secret passage he had first entered from had been blasted shut and buried under rubble by the dragon's fire. The only other way out was the giant iron doors that barred the mouth of the mountain. The lever to open them was built for six strong men to pull, not one scrawny half-grown thief. The dragon took great delight and show in shoving them open with his massive bulk and slamming them shut behind him with a whip of his muscular tail. Kuroko gave up after seeing this the first few times. It didn't matter if he did manage to escape anyway. He wouldn't be truly free. Not so long as the dragon held his name fast in his jaws. At least here he wouldn't be causing any harm to Seirin.

Nor to himself. Unlike the Web-weaver, the dragon never once issued an order with his true name carried at the end as Kuroko feared. He would simply utter it out loud every once and awhile as if savoring the taste of it.

"Tetsuya… _Tetsuya,"_ the dragon thrummed, his muzzle curving into a toothy, hooked grin as Kuroko visibly shuddered under the weight of it.

The dragon seemed to want to keep his little shadow-thief healthy and alive. Every time he returned from one of his hunting trips, he made sure to bring back a carcass of some animal large enough to sustain a human for a week.

"I assume that your occupation as a thief means traveling quite a lot and sleeping on the road. You do know how to skin your prey, do you not?" the dragon had asked the first time dropping a dead deer in front of him.

Kuroko had done the best he could with a jewel-encrusted dagger he had found lying among the piles of riches, but he had never skinned an animal this size before. Whenever Kuroko went about on his secret missions, it was usually a squirrel or rabbit he brought down with a slingshot. The deer hide was too tough for him to take off alone and the dragon was impatient.

Kuroko had stifled a cry and leaped away as the dragon lit the carcass ablaze with a stream of fire from a single nostril. The deer had all been but burned to blackened crisp, Kuroko's hands had been blistered raw by the heat, and the dragon had busied himself doing that deep rumbling in his throat which was his way of laughing.

"Not good at hiding _and_ clumsy, two important skills for a thief, both which you lack," the dragon criticized.

But he had brought Kuroko three pheasants the next day all of which Kuroko had plucked their feathers out with ease.

A thin vein of water dripped from a crack in the mountain's walls. Kuroko collected it in golden jars and ivory vases. He liked to drink fresh before it had been sitting, collecting warmth within its containers. If he drank the water right after it fell, it was still cold from the snow on top of the mountain. If he closed his eyes and imagined hard enough, he could almost fool himself in believing he felt the wind in his hair and sunshine on his face. He had seen nothing but gold and darkness and dragon fire for so long that sometimes he thought the outside world was nothing more than a faint wisp of a long forgotten dream.

Strangely enough, he was never lacking for company. The dragon never ignored him, though the conversation was always a bit one-sided. The beast's favorite pastime was digging some bauble or gem from his vast collection and showing it off to Kuroko. He could do this for days on hours at end.

"Look, shadow-thief," the dragon said holding up a sapphire the size of Kuroko's hand between two claws. "It matches the shade of your eyes. You may have it if so wish."

"No thank you," Kuroko politely declined. He didn't see what good it was owning a jewel in place he could never leave. It was a pity though. If sold, that jewel could feed and pay Seirin's ranks for months.

"Your loss, shadow-thief," the dragon said tossing it aside. He rarely spoke Kuroko's true name, only every little bit as if to assure himself that yes, a little human pet had been added to possessions. "Ah, you see this!" he exclaimed excitedly, pointing with one claw towards a jade statue of a squatting frog. "I stole that from the temple of the Oracle of Shutoku! Oh yes, his High Prophet-ness was _hopping _mad with rage! He ran after me, robes billowing, shrieking curses and firing spells for a good two miles before he gave up."

Kuroko blinked. Had the dragon just told a funny story?

"And this," the dragon said rooting his horned snout into an intricately carved wooden trunk. "This I clipped off one of those _kitsune_-shifters in Kaijou as a souvenir."

Clenching something between his teeth, the dragon lifted his head up and dropped it into Kuroko's lap. It was soft and furry and twice the length of Kuroko: a white fox tail.

"You may use that to sleep on," the dragon nodded at it. "You humans have such pitifully fragile shells of flesh. Nothing like my scales!" he roared arching his long neck up and stretching his wings wide. "Tough as leather, hard as iron! Do you see anything weak about me, shadow-thief?"

"No, Great Dragon," Kuroko said quietly for truly he could seen none. If he was destined to live out the remainder of his life sealed away in this mountain then at least he had one small blessing in that the dragon was not outright vicious and cruel (at least to him).

The dragon smiled at him in a crooked, toothy manner that was by now becoming a familiar sight. "You may call me Akashi," were the words he spoke.

Kuroko's heart may have skipped a beat in shock. "What?" he said not sure he had heard correctly. But by then the dragon had turned his back to him and was lumbering his way towards the twin iron doors for another hunting trip.

"That's not your true name!" Kuroko called after him not for one second being fooled.

"Of course not, shadow-thief, but you may call me that nonetheless!" the dragon—Akashi—thrummed as he jostled open the doors and wedged his sinewy body through. With a forceful tug from his tail, they were barred shut yet again and then from behind them, Kuroko heard the rumbling of dragon's laughter echoing throughout the mountain.

oOo

A kind of tentative truce lay unspoken between them in the days that followed. Kuroko no longer flinched away whenever the dragon came near or spoke his true name, and the dragon stopped his never-ending tour of his collection (for the most part). Sometimes though, Akashi could not contain himself and the next thing Kuroko knew he was listening to an hour long rambling story about the master prowess and cunning behind the theft of the object and how much more superior the dragon was over a shadow-thief like him.

It never bothered Kuroko. He had spent a good portion of his life alone skulking in the shadows. He had often overheard others talking, yet aside from orders issued to him he never much had someone take delight in conversing directly with him. Perhaps it was because Akashi didn't seem to care if he responded or not to anything he said that Kuroko found himself relaxing. Kuroko had always been abysmal at small talk. There was no stress or worry at have having to think of some cliché answer to give in reply with the dragon. Akashi seemed content with having just his mere presence nearby to throw words idly at.

Kuroko often wondered if the reason he was being treated so nicely for a dragon's captive was because Akashi had been lonely. He never uttered such thoughts out loud though in case he was wrong and spiked Akashi's wrath.

One particular day, when Kuroko was in the middle of reading an ancient book he had found in one of the chests he received an odd request.

"My scales itch, shadow-thief," Akashi rumbled discontentedly, wriggling this way and that from where he lay upon his pile of gold. "Polish them."

"I'm sorry?" Kuroko said not quite understanding.

Akashi rolled a large corked clay flagon across the gold coins to him. Uncorking it, Kuroko peered inside and the scent of spiced oils filled his nose.

"I wanted to bathe in the hot springs near Touou. All that hot, scalding water feels very good on the scales. I didn't know they had built a new temple near there though. I just get comfortable, next thing I know there's all these shrine maidens screaming about offering up a virgin sacrifice and lots of naked females running about," Akashi explained. He looked very disgruntled for a dragon. His tail was flicking to and fro like an agitated, overgrown cat.

The sound that gurgled up from the depths of Kuroko's throat and overflowed from his mouth surprised both of them.

Akashi blinked, his mismatched eyes staring fixed on Kuroko. "Did you just laugh, shadow thief?" he asked, flaring his nostrils wide in amazement.

Kuroko stood frozen like a statue, shock overloading his system. He couldn't remember the last time he had laughed. Sometimes the silly antics of Seirin would make a smile appear in the small corners of his lips but that was all. It had been so long since he had laughed without thinking. He had forgotten how wonderful it felt.

Akashi eyed him a bit longer then tucked his head back between his claws and closed his eyelids. "Polish my scales, shadow-thief," he commanded without further comment.

Later, after Kuroko had cut piece off an old robe, doused it with oil and given the dragon's neck and head a vigorous scrubbing that left those red scales gleaming crimson did Akashi speak again.

"You may not believe it, shadow-thief, but for all the time you have spent in here with me, you look far happier now than the day you first came creeping into my cavern, hugging the shadows tightly."

Perched atop of the dragon's muzzle and in the process of cleaning the curved horn that jutted from the dragon's snout, Kuroko paused and glanced over his shoulder. Scarlet and gold eyes stared down at him in a calculating manner.

"Why are you so eager to return to the outside world when you hate it so?" Akashi asked curiously.

"I… I do not hate it," Kuroko said minding his words carefully.

"But you've certainly been handed the hard hand of luck most of your life, haven't you?" Akashi pressed. "I've seen the world out there. The lands were at war when I was born and they shall still be at war when I am dead. No one is right and everyone is wrong. You fight meaningless battles day after day and lose countless lives for what? For one nation to be ruler of all? To enslave the rest because they are the victor and it is their right to put lesser beings in their place? Then one day their reign will topple and fall and the same cycle of blood and death will repeat itself again. Why do you wish to join that senseless melee when you can live a long life here away from it all?"

Kuroko would have agreed with him once. In all his wanderings and tasks, he never actually thought there was a side worth fighting for. He had thought each land was filled with the same corrupt greed as the rest; that no nation truly wanted good for all mankind.

"There are some that I believe will bring peace to the land. They are worth laying down my life for," he said and his thoughts strayed to Seirin and the kind souls within it. Seirin that was a bright splash of sunshine and hope in a land filled with nothing but decay and shadows.

A tremendous shaking and rumbling began beneath the scales Kuroko sat upon. The only warning he received was two billowing blasts of smoke from the dragon snorting before he was thrown off the beast's snout.

Gold coins flew up into the air with a loud clatter at his impact and his vision was filled with a great crimson dragon towering over him, fire and vapor shooting from his nostrils and flames protruding forth from his terrible jaws gaping wide in livid displeasure.

"HAPPY ENDINGS ARE NOTHING BUT FAIRY TALES AND FOR FOOLS!" Akashi bellowed in a smoldering rage. "ARE YOU A FOOL, TETSUYA? ARE YOU?"

He had spiked the dragon's wrath at last after all. He lay silent and unmoving amidst the gold and decided it was best for him to be quiet while the dragon unleashed his fury.

"SO YOU WILL LET OTHERS USE YOU THEN?" Akashi roared. "YOU'LL LET YOURSELF BECOME NOTHING MORE THAN A TOOL FOR THEIR BIDDING, THEIR PRECIOUS WAR GAMES? THEY WILL USE YOU UNTIL YOUR POWER DIMINISHES AND YOU ARE OF NO FURTHER VALUE TO THEM AND THEY WILL CAST YOU ASIDE WITHOUT A SECOND CARE OR THOUGHT! THIS IS THE PATH YOU CHOSE EVEN KNOWING THE OUTCOME?"

Kuroko stared up into the dragon's face that was twisted in a fearsome, blinding anger, into those jaws that promised pain and death if he spoke one wrong word and a great calm settled over him despite this.

"If I am a fool for believing in hopeless cause, that the evil in this land can be thwarted, that I may not live to see such days of peace but I will fight for that dream until my dying breath… then let me be a fool," Kuroko said.

Akashi roared furiously again with a great gnashing of teeth and threw his head back, belching blasts of fire. Pieces of rocks fell down about them and cracks splintered the walls of the mountain and Kuroko thought perhaps the dragon meant to bury them both alive.

Eventually the roaring died down to a low growling as Akashi reigned in his temper tantrum. Then with scarlet and gold eyes narrowed to slits, the dragon curled the folds of his upper lip in disdain at the tiny human before him. "I expected so much more of you, Tetsuya," he sneered.

Then Akashi was gone with a great smashing and crashing through the twin iron doors which were pulled off their hinges at the ferocity of the dragon's charge. They toppled to the ground with a gigantic _CLANG _that reverberated all throughout the mountain

Kuroko saw the outside world for the first time in a long while: blue skies and sunlight and the green treetops of the forests below. It was a cruel, mocking gift from Akashi to give him a glimpse of freedom and for Kuroko to know that the dragon still held him captive.

oOo

Kuroko half-expected Akashi to let him starve since he had offended him so. However, when the dragon returned from hunting, his meal for the week was flung in his direction.

In the days that followed the dragon settled into a sulking, brooding silence. He ignored the human's presence completely except to give him food. Now Kuroko truly did feel as if he was nothing more than another of Akashi's vast collection; just another trophy piece to stuff in his hoard and be forgotten about one day. He yearned for the times past when Akashi would chatter aimlessly forever to him about some shiny trinket and how he had acquired it.

So of course he was surprised when one day out of the blue the dragon plopped himself down beside him and said, "What nation do you hail from, little shadow-thief? I wish to know what sort of people breeds the most fool-hardy, stubborn humans in all the land."

Kuroko started. It was the first time Akashi had talked to him in days and now he was seeking personal information. Still, he found it nice to hear the dragon's voice again.

"I come from a kingdom far away from this one," he said, the faintest trace of a smile hovering on his lips as he fondly remembered. "I can't even remember the name. It didn't have rolling plains or forests like this land. It was by the sea and there was lots of sand. I used to climb the cliffs there and suck sea gull eggs."

"No wonder you entered my mountain with such dexterity," Akashi snorted. "What cruel fate brought you to this merciless land?"

Kuroko's face hardened at the memory of the ships on the horizon that had arrived that day and changed his life forever. "The Crownless Generals," he spoke, the words bitter on his tongue. "They came and took me away."

He never had understood how they had known about his abilities. He always had tried his best to keep his powers of misdirection a secret, and for the most part no one seemed to even notice there was anything out of the ordinary about him. Actually, most people tended not to notice him at all which was good and fine. Rumors had spread about an academy in a far away land that scoured the ends of the earth for searching for people like him: people born with extraordinary abnormalities that they could twist and train for their own notorious purposes.

He thought he had fooled them when the Crownless Generals had searched throughout his land and had returned to their ships to depart empty-handed.

He still remembered the gently-smiling face of Kiyoshi the Iron Heart as he crouched down to his eye level, _looked right through him_ and said, "Oh, that's a curious little gift you have there. I nearly missed you, didn't I?" Then he had been lifted and swung over broad shoulders like a fresh catch of fish and the last glimpse of his land had been the shoreline fading in the distance as the ships sailed away.

His mother, his father, his childhood friend, their faces were but a vague and fuzzy memory that he could barely recall. Had they wept for him? He did not know.

"So they took you to Teiko Academy then," Akashi murmured, pulling Kuroko out of his reminiscing.

Kuroko blinked realizing what the dragon had just said. Wisps of smoke curled out of the dragon's nose as he mused out loud. "They call them gifts, they say you are blessed," Akashi said. "But they are nothing but curses that leads to your destruction."

"You speak as if you understand," Kuroko said quietly.

Akashi eyed him with narrowed scrutinizing stare. He opened his jaws as if to speak before snapping them shut. Then the dragon stood up on all four legs abruptly, declared he needed to stretch his wings and vanished through the mountain's entrance into the night.

oOo

Kuroko was dozing lightly, the white fox tail spread out under him like a fluffy pillow, when he heard it: a rhythmical _chink_-ing sound, like metal on rock that ricocheted throughout the mountain.

He sat up, still half-groggy from sleep and looked around. Akashi had not yet returned. Whatever the sound was, it was not the dragon.

_Chink._

_Chink._

It seemed to be coming from the outside the entrance to the mountain.

Kuroko suddenly wished Akashi had never torn down those strong iron doors in fit of dragon-ish rage.

Leaping up, he scurried across the gold coins and hid behind the jade statue of the squatting frog, hoping fervently that it wasn't an irate Oracle of Shutoku or any other person that the dragon had stolen relics from.

A hand appeared over the ledge, then another. Then the slim figure of a young man hauled himself up over the entrance's mouth. He paused for a moment or two to catch his breath before reaching down the underbelly of the ledge and pulling two pick axes out of the mountain's bedrock.

Kuroko watched trying to assess the situation. Another thief? But the man carried no sack to store valuables in. There was something strapped to his back, but Kuroko could not make it out in the blackness. Without Akashi always exhaling puffs of vaporous flames and his scales that glowed from his inner fire, the mountain was rather dark and cold.

Then the moon peeked out from behind its blanket of clouds and shed its pale light down into the mouth of the mountain, tearing the mask of darkness away from the intruder.

It had been so long since he last had laid eyes on him, Kuroko was amazed he was able to recognize him especially after so many years. Perhaps it was because he had been thinking of his homeland recently. In any case, he knew at once who this unexpected visitor was. Even though he had aged slightly, that brown hair and eyes were quite familiar to him.

"Ogiwara?" Kuroko dared to utter in a hushed voice and the name echoed throughout the dragon's lair like a sigh of wind.

The young man froze a second before peering into the inky darkness. "Who's there?" he called out.

"Ogiwara," Kuroko said again in wonderment, coming out from behind the jade statue and walking into a patch where moonlight streamed in so the other could see his features.

"Kuroko?" his childhood friend said hesitantly. The look on his face was incredulous. "Kuroko? Is that you?"

"What are you doing here, Ogiwara?" Kuroko asked because he couldn't really be here. He had to be safe back home. No one who was not born here should set foot in such an accursed land by their own choice.

"Kuroko, it is you!" the young man cried rushing forward and grasping Kuroko's forearms in greeting. "When they took you away, I was so afraid… I thought you had perished…"

"I'm no use to anyone dead," Kuroko said mechanically. The line had been ingrained into his head by Teiko ever since he had crossed the academy's threshold.

A pained expression wafted across Ogiwara's face. "Oh, gods, Kuroko, it must have been so horrible. Did they torture you?"

"Not too much," Kuroko replied. The Web-weaver, then Hanamiya had enjoyed terrorizing "the greenhorns" as he had called them, but for the most part Teiko had been an institution for drilling warfare techniques into their special students. The lessons had been relentless and harsh, but not overly so, and he had survived many a time in dire circumstances because of them. Yet he had never asked to be taken away from his family or home to learn such skills so he had always resented the academy for that.

"What are you doing here in these lands?" he asked again.

A deep frown furrowed across Ogiwara's brow. "The ships came again," he spat bitterly. "Not Teiko this time, but they were from this land. They came time and time again from all corners of every region, that's how desperate these nations are to find bodies with blood to spill. They've killed off so many of their own population they have to drag others onto their giant chessboard to play their game. There's nothing left where we grew up but ashes and ruin. They've destroyed everything!"

Kuroko shut his eyes briefly in mourning. It had been but a dim hope, but he had kindled it inside his chest for many years: that one day if Seirin finally won and brought peace, he would find his way back to his homeland and start his life anew. But this pitiless land had stolen even that faint dream from him as well.

"You look well, Ogiwara," he said reopening his eyes. "What happened to you?"

Ogiwara had a slim but muscular build. The leather armor he wore looked light and flexible enough to be light on his feet. The boots on his feet had no holes and his clothing had no patches.

"I survived," Ogiwara said with a blunt vehemence. "I wasn't so fortunate as you now," an odd, strained laugh escaped his throat. "I have no 'special abilities' so I wasn't welcomed in Teiko's doors, but Rakuzan took me in and trained me well enough."

"Rakuzan?" Kuroko repeated. That nation was renowned for its gladiator style of fighting and sheer brute strength of their ranks. "You've become a solider for their army?"

"Don't speak such nonsense," Ogiwara scoffed. "Why would any person not native to this land willingly join their thrice-accursed crusade? Let them all kill each other, I care not. Rakuzan is a nation of mercenaries and they pay well enough."

Kuroko was silent trying to piece all this information together. "And what would Rakuzan want with a mercenary in a dragon's lair?" he asked.

"They needed someone who could scale up a mountain quite easily for one. Luckily, we both had lots of experience climbing up the cliffs when we were younger, didn't we? I see you've managed to beat me to the top as usual," Ogiawara grinned. But the grin was not the happy one Kuroko remembered. This one seemed strained. There was a sort of wild, edgy look in his friend's face as his eyes roved over the dragon's lair in a calculating manner.

"Rakuzan needs gold to fuel its ranks, you know," Ogiwara explained. "They cannot exist on air alone and neither can I. They sent me to scout ahead and to take note of the beast's comings and goings so I could find a way to assess how much wealth the beast had stolen away here. The dragon deviated from his customary schedule tonight so I took my chance. And then I find you here also, my long-lost friend," Ogiwara clapped Kuroko heartily one on shoulder. "This is fortunate, most fortunate. You'll come away with me, won't you?"

For one glorious moment, Kuroko envisioned it: of leaving behind this cave and all its lack-luster riches, of returning to the outside world of sun and wind, of traveling side by side with his old friend like they used to do as children and finally seeing Seirin again.

Then the enchantment woven into his true name clamped down upon him with the force so profound it dragged Kuroko to his knees amongst the gold coins. "I… _can't,"_ Kuroko wheezed, one hand clutching his chest. It felt like an icy-cold claw was wringing his heart in two.

He was dimly aware of Ogiwara kneeling next to him, shaking him and asking what was wrong, but he had no breath to give an answer.

Someone else did however.

"BACK, INTRUDER. GET AWAY FROM MY SHADOW-THIEF. HE IS _MINE."_

The mountain quaked and trembled at the mighty roar. Then an enormous crimson dragon burst through the entrance, his reptilian face filled with horrible wrath as a deep snarling spilled forth from his snapping jaws.

From the corner of his eye, Kuroko saw Ogiwara leap backwards—just in time. Akashi had shot out his neck low to the ground in alarming speed like a snake aiming for its prey. His teeth bit nothing but air in the space Ogiwara had been a mere second ago and Akashi made an enraged hissing sound, the first of which Kuroko had ever heard him do. Then Kuroko's vision was obscured as two pairs of leathery red wings cupped themselves over him possessively.

"SO YOU THINK YOU CAN ENTER MY MOUNTAIN AND TAKE THAT WHICH DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU?" Akashi thundered above him. "YOU REEK OF RAKUZAN, MERCENARY, OF ITS FILTH AND LIES."

"Akashi," Kuroko coughed, standing to his feet and swaying slightly. He felt a bit dizzy but the pain and pressure from before had left, probably due to the dragon's presence. "Akashi, please don't eat him, he's my friend," he pleaded.

"Your _friend _is a _lying rogue,"_ Akashi spat swiveling his head to gaze at him with feral, unfocused scarlet and gold eyes. His sides were heaving with anger still. "I know when a person speaks the truth and when they spin falsehoods and deceptions. TELL HIM, MERCENARY, WHY YOU'RE TRULY HERE!"

The dragon unfurled his wings slightly from around Kuroko so he could see. Ogiwara stood a good safe length away, a blank expression on his face. Then with a nonchalant shrug, Ogiwara reached one hand behind him and pulled out the cross-brow from where it had been strapped to his back. Then with the other hand, he fitted an arrow from his quiver to the bow string and took aim.

"Well, I was telling the truth about Rakuzan, Kuroko," Ogiwara said in a voice so solemn, with eyes so empty that it frightened him. "They are a nation of mercenaries and that means taking on jobs that pay wealthily, even if it's from one of the very factions they're fighting. But it wasn't Rakuzan that requested services rendered on this particular job though they _did _send me." He locked eyes with Akashi. "Teiko doesn't like deserters, dragon."

Kuroko's mouth went dry. His pounding heart felt like it had jumped in his throat.

Akashi laughed darkly, a deep gravelly rumbling that echoed off the walls. "You think you can kill me with that weak little piece of wood? No arrow of that nature can pierce my iron armor! _You witless FOOL!"_

"You are indeed correct once more," Ogiwara replied in a tone so mocking it made Akashi pause. "Your father sends his regards… _Seijuro."_

It was so quiet Kuroko could hear the blood marching madly in his ears. He lifted his head to see Akashi's mismatched eyes wide with shock, his slit pupils narrowed to pin-pricks. Pressed against the dragon's front foreleg, Kuroko felt the beginnings of violent tremors that ran through his body from snout to tail. Then a great howling noise exploded from those jaws.

"NO, NO, NO, I KILLED HIM, HE'S DEAD!" Akashi screeched in vehement disbelief. "HE'S DEAD, DEAD,_ DEAD!"_

"Not as dead as you thought obviously. He still managed to give out your name from that charred husk you burned him into when he got news of Teiko searching for you." Ogiwara said. "Now, Seijuro… reveal your true form."

Akashi collapsed on all hind forequarters. A truly wretched and despairing wail pierced the air as the dragon writhed and rolled about as if in agonizing pain, his thick tail lashing out like a whip every which way.

Kuroko had long since backed away and watched in morbid fascination as the tail dissolved into nothing, those fearsome claws transformed into fingers and toes, that horned snout and wicked set of jaws morph into a nose and lips, those magnificent wings shrink back into shoulder blades. He watched until at last those gleaming crimson scales cracked open liked an eggshell and scattered amongst the gold coins like pieces of shattered rubies leaving only a young man lying in their wake.

The moonlight shone down upon his pale skin that was shivering from the night air. His entire body was trembling with distress, his red hair was matted with sweat, and his scarlet and gold eyes were glazed over and vacant.

"You see how it goes now, Kuroko," Ogiwara said. "This land doesn't forgive betrayals, not even from one of their own. There's a price on your head too."

Kuroko looked up sharply at that and Ogiwara nodded at him. "It's alright. Teiko doesn't know your true name though they do have you on their Wanted list. Never mind, I won't tell anyone I found you. You needn't fear them for much longer. Teiko is falling slowly into ruin. First their Emperor Eye deserts them," he walked forward and nudged one of Akashi's bare legs with his boot. "Then the Iron Heart, then you. Last I heard, three of the other Crownless Generals already defected to Rakuzan. Teiko won't last much longer under just the Web-weaver's rule. Well, one more faction to be eliminated in this god-forsaken land. Count yourself lucky, you're free."

_Free._ It seemed almost surreal. He didn't feel free. And if he was, why was he not happier? Why did an emotion feeling similar to sorrow weigh down upon him as he stared at Akashi lying motionless amongst the gold?

"Whatever were you doing in this beast's lair, Kuroko?" he heard Ogiwara ask as if from the end of a long tunnel though in fact he was standing right next to him. "I was more than a bit startled when I heard Teiko had announced you as a traitor and deserter. They said your last mission was to assassinate the Iron Heart but you never had come back nor was there any sign you had ever been to Seirin. Did you get captured by this skin-changer perhaps?"

oOo

_Hanamiya had been angry. So very, very angry. He held Kiyoshi the Iron Heart's name in his grasp but he did not have the full control over him as he so wished. He could not draw the former Crownless General back to Teiko nor could he unleash his vengeance on Seirin from the inside through him. Kiyoshi had outsmarted him in the end, locked himself away where the only one the Web-Weaver could extort his fury and evil-doings out upon was himself._

"_Kiyoshi has abandoned us," Hanamiya hissed, his face twisted in irritation at his plans being foiled. "He who called himself our brother and helped spread fear and respect throughout this land at this mighty academy's name. He has deserted us for this puny, mewling faction of Seirin who are so pathetically soft-hearted they won't even give him the decency of dying while he still has dignity left." He had whirled on Kuroko who had been sitting in the shadows, silently listening. "Do you not hate him? He was the one who noticed your power, the one who plucked you from your homeland without giving you any choice on the matter and dropped you here in a land where we pick the weak ones' bones clean. This was never your war until he thrust it upon you. Do you not desire revenge?"_

_Kuroko had crept quietly throw the bowels of Seirin's fortress, sticking to the shadows and the safety they offered. Down to the dungeons he had stepped softly on the stone floor until he stood outside the cell door of his intended target._

"_Kuroko…" a dry, haggard whisper drifted out from the bars on the door and he had frozen at the sound of his name. "I hoped they would send you," Kiyoshi's voice rasped, weary with relief. "Do it quickly."_

_He should have complied with the man's wishes then and there; done it as smoothly and as efficiently as squashing a bug on the wall. But he had to know…_

"_Why did you forsake us for Seirin, Kiyoshi?" Kuroko asked only just then realizing he felt more hurt than a desire for vengeance at how easy it had been for Kiyoshi to turn his back and forget about him, about everyone at Teiko, and begin his life anew._

_A long heavy sigh was exhaled. "I cannot explain it. You would have to see for yourself how different Seirin is. There is hope here, Kuroko, real hope. The world will not end in blood and death and ruin, not with them as the victors. They will unite the rest of the nations under one banner and there will be war no longer. I wanted to help them as much as I could."_

_There was true confidence in Kiyoshi's words and Kuroko desperately wished to believed them, but he had seen too much of unspeakable horrors, committed so many unfathomable, unforgivable acts that hope had become a foreign concept. Bringing death was a daily routine for him. His hands were stained with a color red so bright that not even the shadows could hide him from judgment when it came one day._

"_Do it now…" Kiyoshi grunted and there was a loud thud of a body hitting the floor from within the cell. "Kill me…" a pained cry ripped free from his throat as the torturous ministrations of the Web-Weaver rained down upon him from afar. "KILL ME NOW! PLEASE! KILL ME!"_

_Then Kiyoshi screamed. He screamed and screamed and it sounded as if someone was tearing his skin open and flaying him alive. The sheer agony within his voice slammed into Kuroko with a furious, accusing conviction._

_The captain of Seirin came running towards the sound, the lieutenant not far behind her. Kuroko could have slain them all in that cell right then and there. Seirin would have fallen and Teiko would have been given the upper hand that day._

_Instead he had stayed, stalking Seirin silently, ever-watchful from the shadows, telling himself just one day more before he finished the task that had been assigned to him. One day more but let him see first the saviors that Kiyoshi claimed there to be in Seirin, at what tiny spark of hope and courage they kindled that could change the fate of the land._

_One day more had turned into several until he had lost track of the time he had spent spying in the shadows' embrace. He found himself half-fearing and half-wishing of the moment Seirin's light that burned so brightly would pierce the darkness that shrouded him. He thought perhaps he might be able to understand why Kiysohi had so much faith in them, why he thought they could be the land's redemption._

_And more than seeing a time of peace, Kuroko wished that Kiyoshi could be free from Hanamiya's curse to join them in the final crusade._

_And an even more small part of him wished deep down that he could join them too._

oOo

Ogiwara continued talking. "I'll tell Teiko I found the remains of someone matching your description in this mountain," he said weaving out his plan. "No one will know you survived, Kuroko. We'll take this creature back to Rakuzan and they'll deliver him over to Teiko. I'll collect the reward money and we'll leave this wretched land together and never look back."

A year ago Kuroko thought he might have leapt at the chance.

Seirin was such a cruel enemy to have. They stole your heart and bound you to them like the Web-weaver captured souls with but the sound of a name. You didn't even have a chance to resist.

Kuroko looked down at Akashi. No longer an arrogant and terrifying dragon, but now a tangled mess of pale quivering limbs with glassy heterochromatic eyes that turned their gaze from focusing on nothing to fix themselves sharply up at his face.

The scarlet and gold irises bored into his own blue ones with such wild and desperate intensity that Kuroko felt like he was being consumed whole. Pale lips parted and Akashi was mouthing something inaudible, one word: _Tetsuya. _

Then more words tumbled forth, louder, shamelessly and in a pitiful chorus of hopeless moans one right after the other, "Kill me, kill me, kill me, _kill me,"_ the once proud dragon begged.

And unlike with Kiyoshi, Kuroko didn't have a choice.

The compulsion spell crafted into his true name seized him by throat and overwhelmed his senses with such potency he blacked out. One moment he was standing looking down upon this creature covered in skin and not scales as he knew was right, and the next, he was kneeling in the gold coins by Akashi's side with the same jewel-encrusted dagger he had skinned his meals with—poised an inch above the dragon-shifter's chest.

A strong hand was curled around his wrist with a crushing grip preventing the tip of the blade from going down any further.

"What are you doing, Kuroko?" Ogiwara shouted as he tried to wrestle the dagger from his grasp. "Do you know the consequences Teiko vowed they would enact upon anyone who thought they would take the easy way out and capture him dead? They want him back alive!"

But the relentless, demanding mantra chanting inside his head would not stop. A sick, twisting feeling cramped in his gut and his vision had started to blur. Kuroko heard his own spill forth in labored panting, watched his own hand clench tight around the dagger until his knuckles turned white, felt his arm shake with the strenuous task of trying to plunge the blade hilt-deep into the dragon-shifter's chest.

"Kuroko, STOP!" Ogiwara cried, throwing his body weight against him to thwart his attempts. "Did you give him your name?" Horror dawned in his eyes. "You did! You gave him your name! _Release him, Seijuro!" _he ordered. "I command you to release him from your foul bedevilment!"

A familiar crooked grin had drifted across Akashi's face; the only difference was now there were no jagged teeth sprouting up in front of the folds of his lips. "Yes, my shadow-thief, you are released here and forevermore," Akashi murmured. His gaze never left Kuroko. "But you'll take it anyway, will you not? A dragon's heart like you always wanted…"

A strangled cry broke free from Kuroko's mouth as he realized Akashi _knew_, that Akashi had _always_ known the true reason why he had come creeping into a dragon's lair.

oOo

_The captain of Seirin had buried her face in her hands and wept: giant, heaving sobs that racked her tiny frame and echoed condemningly in Kuroko's ears._

_Seirin had taken to drugging Kiyoshi ever since the day he had tried to bite his tongue to kill himself. But the drugs could only fog his mind from clarity not drown out the pain and he continued to babble incoherently like a madman in feverish torment._

"_Is there nothing we can do to save him?" Captain Aida had asked despairingly._

_Lieutenant Hyuuga had paused before speaking hesitantly, "It's just a legend. It's been passed around forever. It's said that a dragon's heart can break any enchantment—"_

"_Enough, Hyuuga," Captain Aida cut him off, lifting her head sharply. Her eyes were red-rimmed, her face was swollen and puffy from crying, and her lips were turned downward in a frown. "I'll hear no more such nonsense. We have a war to win. We don't have time to spend chasing after some foolish fairy tale."_

_And if the room seemed a bit brighter and less devoid of shadows after that, neither of them took any notice. _

oOo

With a burst of energy, Kuroko shoved Ogiwara aside and stabbed the dagger down with a piercing cry that was half-anger, half-anguish. The blade embedded itself into the pile of gold coins a hairsbreadth away from Akashi's neck.

Gold and scarlet eyes stared up at him wide eyed in shock.

Kuroko knelt there trembling from head to toe as the last vestiges of adrenalin faded from him. He was so tired of killing, so tired from running away, so tired of hiding in the shadows, so tired of never having a will of his own. Now at last, he had been given freedom of choice and he was going to seize that chance no matter how foolish some would think it was.

"How many people know Akashi's true name?" he asked locking eyes with Ogiwara so he could view the truth within them. "Does Teiko know it?"

"Do you honestly believe Rakuzan would give Teiko the name of very target they're seeking? What profit would there be in that?" Ogiwara said.

"How many then?" Kuroko repeated. "Who else did his father tell?"

Ogiwara narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Why do you wish to know so much? What does it matter to you?"

A hysterical cackle bubbled out of Akashi's mouth as he turned his stare on him. "Just him!" he laughed madly. _"Just him!_ The old fool told only him! He whispered the secret of our clan in his ear and then he _died!_ He is truly dead now then_, ahahahahahahaha!"_

"_Silence, Seijuro,"_ Ogiwara commanded training his cross bow straight and true at Akashi's golden eye which had begun to shine with a strange light. "He warned me about that Emperor Eye of yours. I can take it out if I so choose. Teiko will still have a dragon-shifter to wipe out armies with."

Akashi's lips pressed together obediently at the order, however his body still shook with silent, crazed laughter.

"You said you wished every nation would kill itself off," Kuroko spoke up quietly. "Why have you sided with Rakuzan and Teiko then?"

"I am on no one's side but my own!" Ogiwara shouted.

"Then why does it matter to you so much about handing Akashi over to Teiko?" Kuroko persisted. "They would only use him as a weapon. It would be a better disadvantage to every faction in the land if you didn't bring him back to Rakuzan at all."

"Are you still under that beast's control, Kuroko?" Ogiwara demanded incredulously. "Rakuzan is where the bounty for his hide is! We'll be long gone from these shores before he reaches Teiko. Why should we care what happens here, whether this land ends in fire and death? It's not our home!"

"But it is _mine."_

The silence that followed after his proclamation rang eerily through the mountain. Kuroko was aware of two pairs of eyes that were gaping at him in wonderment.

"What?" Ogiwara looked as if he had been punched in the gut. "How can you say that? After all this cursed land has done to us? They destroyed our homeland—"

"Yes, they did," Kuroko said. "We have no home to return to anymore. I will not waste the rest of my life wandering as a vagabond on the seas, always traveling, never finding refuge for more than a couple of days at a time. We may hate this land, but it nourished us and we grew up here, learned their customs. You may reject it, but I do not," he stated firmly. "This is my home now and I will not abandon it nor stand by and watch as it tears itself apart."

Ogiwara had opened his mouth but no sounds came out. He was shaking his head as if unable to believe what he had just heard. A betrayed expression had swept across his face.

"You don't need to take Akashi back to Rakuzan to collect the reward. There's plenty here to aid you on your journey," Kuroko said waving his hand in a wide arc.

Ogiwara looked about and stared as if just realizing he was standing upon piles and piles of gold that littered the inside of the mountain.

"I've chosen my side in this land," Kuroko said thinking of Seirin. The next time he would see them if would be different. They would see him as well. "It's fine if you have too, if you've chosen to stand with Rakuzan—"

"No! _No!" _Ogiwara yelled, fury darkening his face at such a suggestion. "Rakuzan is just a means to an end!"

"Then there is no need for you to hold Akashi captive any longer. Please release him from the name-binding."

"No. No, I would not dare," Ogiwara refused casting a skeptical eye over the dragon-shifter. "He would transform back into that savage creature and devour me."

The crooked grin on Akashi's face stretched even wider than Kuroko thought possible and he knew Ogiwara spoke true.

"If I must leave you behind, would it not be in your best interests to return to Teiko with the dragon as your prize?" Ogiwara tried to make him see sense. "Once the beast is in their control again, they will undoubtedly be the victors. You'll be safest there."

"I would not," Kuroko said. "Teiko is not the side I have chosen and the Web-weaver will kill anyone who he finds out that knows Akashi's true name. Did you truly believe you would be able to leave this land alive when you hold the power of a dragon's name on your tongue?" Kuroko nodded at the disturbed expression on Ogiwara's face. "Hanamiya guards the threads that make up the name-binding spells most jealously."

Ogiwara was quiet for several long moments as he weighed his options, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, the aim of his crossbow never straying from where Akashi still lay. "What would you have me do?" he finally asked.

"Take all the gold you desire. Use it to fund your travel out if this land," Kuroko said. "Only please release Akashi first. He deserves to be free."

"As free as you were held here holed up in his treasure trove?" Ogiwara retorted sharply.

"Ogiwara…"

"This land has brainwashed you, Kuroko. I am sorry I did not find you sooner," Ogiwara apologized looking crestfallen as regret reflected within eyes. But he did to Kuroko's relief lower the crossbow.

Kuroko lifted a finger and pressed it to Akashi's forehead lightly. The dragon-shifter flinched roughly and started to quiver all over at so light a touch, and Kuroko wondered how long had it been since this side of Akashi had felt another human contact.

"I release you, _Seijuro,"_ he said softly feeling the power of the true name slip away from him and Akashi jerked as if a chain had been dropped from around his neck.

Ogiwara made a scornful noise in his throat. Kuroko ignored him and concentrated.

The moon shone down its white brilliance, illuminating even the darkest corners of the cavern and Kuroko breathed deeply… and summoned them.

The shadows rushed towards him, encircled him and Akashi and enveloped them like a blanket. Black tendrils of darkness wrapped around Akashi's limbs, binding them in place.

"Ogiwara, I have him," Kuroko said. "Do it now please."

Ogiwara gave no outward sign that he was shocked by Kuroko's manipulation of the shadows, but then he wouldn't be. He had spent his childhood after all watching his friend disappear and reappear from within them as easily as a frog did jumping puddles.

Ogiwara stared for the longest time that Kuroko began to doubt that the bonds of childhood friendship were not strong enough to hold sway over such a magnanimous request. Perhaps in the end, despite what he said about not choosing any side, Ogiwara might enjoy the thrill of capturing the bounty more than the profit itself, more than the prospect of gathering enough gold that lay in the mountain to leave this land.

But at last a long-winding sigh fell from his lips. "Farewell, Kuroko," Ogiwara murmured despondently. "I hope our paths cross again in happier times." He locked a contemptuous gaze on Akashi. "Know how lucky you are to have won his trust, dragon. Don't tarnish it." Then taking several steps back he uttered the final words to break the binding spell, _"Seijuro_… I release you."

Akashi threw back his head and emitted a triumphant roar as if channeling the dragon slumbering within him and for a second Kuroko believed fire would come spewing forth from his lips.

Then darkness rose up and crashed over them both like a tidal wave and the shadows swallowed them whole.

oOo

When the shadows parted the mountain was nowhere in sight and they found themselves standing at the edge of a forest.

Kuroko's knees wobbled and he leaned tiredly against the trunk of the tree before slumping to the ground taking Akashi down with him. Shadow-traveling, especially great distances, always took their toll out on him. He didn't do it often. It left him too weak for too long periods of time. It would be all too easy for him to be picked off in that state.

"You know, before," Akashi murmured sounding just as exhausted as he felt, "when I called you a shadow-thief, I did not cross my mind that you literally were one."

"I thought your Emperor Eye lets you foresee the future," Kuroko said, gleaning this knowledge from the few lines Ogiwara had let slip.

Akashi chuckled dryly. "Yes, that's right. I am absolute. I can see the entirety of the future. It is but a simple matter." He clamped a hand over his left eye, his golden eye, and grimaced as if in pain. "But it's too much, too much. _It hurts_. I can see many paths and multiple choices and they always want to know each and every outcome precisely. I cannot keep track of them all and _it burns_, it burns worse than fire!"

Akashi doubled over jerking violently as he began to hyperventilate, caught in nightmare-ish memories of the past, and Kuroko grabbed him by the shoulders and pressed the dragon-shifter's head to his chest. Skin-to-skin contact had always soothed him as a child. It was one of the few memories he had left of his mother. It seemed to be working for Akashi as well. Tense muscles under his hands slowly relax as Akashi heard the steady heartbeat resound his ears.

"Why did you rescue me, shadow-thief?" Akashi asked. "Your friend was right. This land is cursed. You would have met a kinder fate leaving with him, not me, your enemy, someone who caged you within rock for months."

"You never once harmed me," Kuroko said. "Not even when you lost your temper. Even back then, you could have ordered me to kill Ogiwara instead. Then he would be dead, you would be released from the spell, I would still be your captive and everything would be back to the way it was."

Akashi snorted petulantly. In the cool night air, it was visible to see the twin puffs of warm breath in front of nose. It was like the dragon inside had reared its head for a bit. "That would have been the coward's way out," he said. "I am not a coward, despite what you may think, hiding myself in that mountain. I was smart. Teiko, they put you in there to hone your special talents so they say. No, you're there as another number to keep track of, another target to be eliminated when you've grown too powerful to control, or to be tossed aside when they deem you no longer useful. So I waited. I waited and I watched every day until I saw a window of opportunity and I seized it. And I flew… I flew far away," Akashi sighed in remembrance, shifting his shoulder blades as if stretching non-existent wings. "Flew where Teiko couldn't follow or find me… but not before paying a dear visit to my father."

"But you always went out and stole things to add to your treasure," Kuroko said. "Wouldn't Teiko be on the lookout for a dragon?"

"My father deemed it unimportant to mention that little fact when he offered me up on a silver platter to them," Akashi laughed darkly. "He always was protective of family secrets. We two, we were the last of the dragon clan of skin-changers, and he sold me into servitude: I, the first dragon-shifter to be born in generations. It wasn't my dragon form that frightened him though," Akashi said dropping his hand away from his golden eye that gleamed in the moonlight. "I had fits, horrible fits. I was so young… I had no idea what I was seeing but the images wouldn't stop, wouldn't go away. I would go into trances, I would speak prophecies and they would come true. So he sold me to Teiko and they dared to call what I had a _gift._ Their Emperor Eye they named me. You never heard about me at all while I was there?"

Kuroko shook his head. "Teiko is very secretive about a great many things." News of the Iron Heart's desertion had not broken until a good six months had passed. Kuroko had simply thought Kiyoshi was away on a mission.

"I suppose they are all still dumb-founded as to how I escaped their clutches and were too embarrassed to talk about it," Akashi said smiling proudly. "I had learned, you see, that in dragon form, I have more control over my Emperor Eye. The future doesn't come slamming into my head all at once. I catch little glimpses here and there every so often. Being a dragon has many merits, keeping my sanity intact for one. And not being _weak_ is another," Akashi snarled low in his throat as he lifted one hand and flexed pale slender fingers. "So vulnerable, so fragile… how easily we perish if the skin is harmed." An expression of utmost disgust had slipped upon his face. "It is also hideous. This human form is loathsome."

"I much prefer this form over your other," Kuroko spoke quickly, terribly perturbed at the notion that he might suddenly have a hundred ton dragon sitting in his lap.

"You do? Truly?" Akashi cried, his scarlet and gold eyes flashing delightedly before his mouth curved into the familiar crooked grin. "You think me much more handsome, more _dashing_ in this form?" Arms wrapped around Kuroko swiftly in a firm embrace as Akashi buried his face in the space between the collarbone and neck. "I suppose humans have _some _exercises I do not find entirely abhorrent."

Kuroko did not return the embrace nor did he try to break away. "When you spoke my true name last… when you gave me the order to kill you… was this one of the outcomes you foresaw?"

Akashi lifted his head to rest his chin on Kuroko's shoulder. "I cannot remember all that I saw then, except being faced with the fact that I was being taken back to Teiko and you were being taken away from me." Fingers dug deeply into his back and Kuroko felt Akashi shudder. "I have never felt such despair in my life. Is this not a cruel twist of fate? I meant to imprison you and yet here I am imprisoned by you instead."

Kuroko was silent for a moment. Then slowly he raised a hand and placed it in crimson red locks. "When I first came into your mountain… if you already knew what I had come to do why did you not kill me then?" he asked.

"You smelled of Teiko. I thought I would steal one of their recruits away, deprive them of another pawn," one of Akashi's legs which were curled up under him began twitching sporadically. Kuroko was certain if he was in dragon form, he'd be thumping his tail on the ground in glee. Then Akashi stilled once more. "And your presence was different. My Eye has trouble reading your future… it lies hidden in shadows, ever elusive as its owner. You intrigued me," Akashi hummed. "You are an anomaly in this land as I am. It seemed only fitting the two of us should stay by each other's side."

"So you did keep me to add to your collection, just another rare item," Kuroko sighed at the dragon-shifter's frivolity.

"Tetsuya, Tetsuya," Akashi crooned low in his ear. The sound of his true name no longer lent any power to its former captor, but it sent little chills down Kuroko's spine. "You could have slain me in my sleep anytime, little shadow-thief, oh yes," he nodded as he felt Kuroko seize up in surprise. "Slipped that beautiful jewel-encrusted dagger between my scales, taken my heart, and left. I only gave you one order before today: never leave the mountain. I never gave any orders that my life was off limits. You never once thought about it. You have a kind soul."

"I suppose you were right before," Kuroko said, absent-mindedly fiddling with a strand of crimson hair. "I really am a fool."

"Ah, well then you're in luck!" Akashi exclaimed in merriment. "For all fools have happy endings, do they not?" He sat back on his haunches to look at him curiously. "Where does yours lie?"

Kuroko looked up at the sky. The darkness of night had faded away. Dawn crept on the horizon in pink and orange colored hues, and it seemed that everyplace the light touched turned to a radiant gold more splendid than all the riches he had laid eyes upon inside the mountain.

"In a place where there are no more shadows."

_The End_

**A/N: **Merry Christmas, all Kurobas fans! This was a secret santa fic written for Ichikonohakko who requested an Akakuro AU. Well, it certainly didn't help that the Desolation of Smaug came out right when I was brainstorming on what to write. My mind was already overrun with dragons and then the HTTYD2 trailer came out and there was no escape. I tried to incorporate Akashi's character from the manga into his dragon form. I thought it would be symbolic of the two personalities he has inside him: his human and dragon sides.

I apologize if any part of the story seems rushed and falls sort of flat. I literally finished this hours from the deadline. It's my fault for procrastinating so long. It took me a whole week to write this. I had no idea it would turn out to be 25 pages. I am sorry. I cannot write short one-shots to save my life, but this thing is a literal monster. I'll probably write an epilogue for this later. I feel the final story has not been told, but I had to end it somewhere otherwise it would have kept going on and on and on! I do hope all of you enjoyed it, especially Ichikonohakko!


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